Twins catcher Joe Mauer switched to a titanium mask, which claims to be stronger than steel, but followed teammate Ryan Doumit onto the concussion disabled list Aug. 20. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Ryan Doumit can't remember exactly when he switched to a titanium catcher's mask, but it was sometime around 2009.

The appeal, if not the outright benefit, seemed obvious.

"It's extremely light, which is what catchers like," said Doumit, in his second season with the Twins. "It's kind of grown on me."

The traditional steel mask is noticeably heavier, Doumit said.

"Throughout the course of the game, you start to feel it in the back of your neck," he said.

Joe Mauer felt the same way about the switch to a titanium mask -- which claims to be 10 times stronger than steel while weighing just 16 ounces -- until he followed Doumit onto the concussion disabled list Aug. 20.

That continued a staggering trend for the month in which at least seven major league catchers suffered concussions while working behind the plate.

Of those, at least three were believed to be using titanium masks at the time of their injuries. So were Doumit and Mauer.

"From a catching standpoint, I hope the science catches up, and we can find a little better mask," Doumit said. "You look across the league, and you see (what's happening). We hope that somebody comes up with a mask that helps stifle that, because it's scary."

Like Doumit, who took a Jason Castro foul tip off the front of his mask Aug.

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4 against Houston, Mauer was sidelined after a pair of hard jolts during an Aug. 19 makeup game against the New York Mets.

The second one, coming into the seventh inning off the bat of Ike Davis, resulted in the first diagnosed concussion of Mauer's professional career.

There is no timetable for Mauer's return, although he was scheduled to begin taking swings off a tee Saturday. He isn't sure if he will be allowed to resume catching should he be able to return before the regular season ends Sept. 29, but it is his hope to maintain his job description as the Twins' primary catcher.

"That's his position," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. "Somebody's going to have to get back there. We can't put a mechanical man back there."

Mauer might have seemed like a cyborg at times, the way he was able to take regular jolts off the front of his mask and catcher's helmet without suffering any newsworthy consequences. However, this recent episode has him uncertain about the role of equipment in this recent spate of catcher concussions.

"I don't know," Mauer said Thursday in his first public comments since his diagnosis. "I hope somebody a lot smarter than me is doing some research on these types of things.

Twins backup catcher Ryan Doumit tags out the Tigers' Don Kelly in a June 15 game at Target Field. Doumit, who switched to a titanium catcher's mask several years ago, spent time on the disabled list last month after suffering a concussion. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)

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In addition to the titanium mask, which Nike debuted in 2007 after consulting with former New York Yankees all-star catcher Jorge Posada, Mauer switched his catcher's helmet in recent years to a ventilated Rawlings prototype.

"It's the one all the hitters use, the concussion one," Mauer said. "That's something over the last four, five years, even before I experienced this, I've been trying to work to improve that. Hopefully, we can do that, get something safer."

The Twins have no blanket policy on what style of mask and helmet their minor league catchers must wear.

"It's a comfort level," Ryan said. "We've got all kinds. All of them are safe. Obviously, they have to go through testing, too."

"I don't know how those guys wear that hockey mask, myself, but they do," Ryan said. "I think it's more for the bat coming around and smoking you in the side of the jaw. Some say they're lighter, maybe a little more protective."

During that same conversation, which preceded by one day the foul tip that landed Mauer on the DL, Ryan noted the Twins' star catcher "might have the best mask they make. They make stuff for him."

Avila, at the Tigers' urging, has gone back to an old-school mask with heavier steel bars and more padding. It remains to be seen if he will be able to avoid a concussion recurrence or if his retro look will catch on as a subset of baseball professionals seek ways to stem a troubling trend.

"There might be some things that will help decrease those chances (of concussion), but those chances still exist," Avila told reporters upon his return Wednesday. "There is always that risk. You look at the NFL -- those helmets are as safe as they come. But you're still going to see guys get concussions. It comes with the territory."

Home-plate umpires are every bit as much in the line of fire, as Mauer and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire noted.

For now, Doumit said he has no plans to change his equipment. He will stick with the titanium mask and hope the "science catches up" during the offseason.

"I think I'm going to ride it out this year," he said. "I don't have any other masks. I just have the one that I have. Hopefully, in spring training they've got something different."

Some sort of hybrid model blending old and new technologies might be best, Doumit suggested.

"I think I would be willing to sacrifice a little weight for being able to stay on the field," he said. "It's worth it. You can't afford to miss too much time."

At some point, there is only so much that researchers can do to protect catchers from the dangers of foul tips off the mask and helmet.

"The bottom line is if a baseball comes flying out of a guy's hand at 95 mph and gets foul-tipped into your mask, I don't know what you're going to be able to put on somebody's head to keep the head from being jerked back," Gardenhire said. "It's just part of the game. It's going to happen."